Military Museum

Today, the boys and I visited the Military Museum of North Florida in Green Cove Springs. Sure, you’d think it’d be pretty lame, but it was actually very interesting and contained a great deal of military memorabilia including weapons, uniforms, and vehicles. The museum is focused on “North Florida connections to the defense of freedom and the contributions and sacrifices made by Florida patriots”. Pretty darn cool!

One of the vehicle displays was a LARC LX or in the military vernacular a “Lighter, Amphibious Resupply, Cargo, 60 ton”. In another lifetime, I was a member of the “Army’s Navy” and actually piloted one of these mammoth boat-cars. As a “watercraft operator” assigned to the 292d Transportation Co. in Palatka, Florida, I spend one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer “driving” these boats up-and-down the St Johns River and on the beach at Mayport Navy Base. I really loved the job, but didn’t care too awfully much for the Army, which is why I ultimately joined the Air Force.

Anyway, it was nice seeing the ol’ girl again and telling the boys about “this-and-that”. They liked the size of the vehicle, of course, and wanted to climb-up the ladder to the deck, but had to settle for just looking. Adam thought the tires were pretty impressive and I explained that each tire was powered by its own GM6-71 2-stroke diesel putting out about 265hp. In addition to the pilot, each LARC had its own diesel mechanic who rode with the boat. Neither of these facts seemed to interest him in the least, as he spied a cannon nearby that he could use to “shoot bad guys”!!